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Learning English through Workplace Communication Unit 1 Describing Jobs and Companies T1 Objectives By the end of the lessons, students will be better able to: list and pronounce a number of jobs write descriptions for a number of jobs ask peers appropriate questions to find out which activities might interest them the most when thinking about a potential job evaluate peer responses to the interviews and recommend an appropriate job for them identify and use telephone expressions for making and taking an appointment design appropriate questions to find out about a famous company identify qualities of a good presentation identify and note useful phrases for presentations present a famous company Time Needed 9 hours 30 minutes Learning / Teaching / Assessment Tasks / Activities Students brainstorm and describe jobs They discuss job interests, conduct interviews and give career advice to each other They practise telephone language to arrange meetings They describe and discuss famous companies They read about and give a presentation on a well-known company Self-access learning task: they make a short presentation for their portfolio about the kind of job or company that might interest them in the future

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Page 1: Describing jobs, businesses and their responsibilities€¦  · Web viewDescribing Jobs and Companies Unit 1 Describing Jobs and Companies. Teacher’s Notes. Describing Jobs. Section

Learning English through Workplace Communication

Unit 1 Describing Jobs and Companies

T1

Objectives

By the end of the lessons, students will be better able to: list and pronounce a number of jobs write descriptions for a number of jobs ask peers appropriate questions to find out which activities might interest

them the most when thinking about a potential job evaluate peer responses to the interviews and recommend an appropriate

job for them identify and use telephone expressions for making and taking an

appointment design appropriate questions to find out about a famous company identify qualities of a good presentation identify and note useful phrases for presentations present a famous company

Time Needed

9 hours 30 minutes

Learning / Teaching / Assessment Tasks / Activities

Students brainstorm and describe jobs They discuss job interests, conduct interviews and give career advice to

each other They practise telephone language to arrange meetings They describe and discuss famous companies They read about and give a presentation on a well-known company Self-access learning task: they make a short presentation for their portfolio

about the kind of job or company that might interest them in the future

Materials Required

Handouts on ‘Describing Jobs and Companies’ CD Tracks 1-3: Phonecalls from the boss CD Track 4: Presentation by Eco-car Supplementary Materials pages T49–T52

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

Unit 1 Describing Jobs and CompaniesTeacher’s Notes

Describing Jobs

Section A: Group discussion (10 minutes)

The principal object of these lessons is to activate interest and knowledge by developing language connected to jobs and job descriptions. Groups start the lesson with a quick discussion sharing information about the jobs they would like to have later on. Elicit feedback from the class.

Section B: Vocabulary

Learning Activity 1 (40 minutes)

Brainstorm A–Z of jobs: inform students that they can use more than one word for some jobs, e.g. Quality Controller (see table). For more examples go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_occupations

In their groups, for about 5 minutes, students note down as many jobs as they can think of. You could do those below with the class on the board to ensure that all students understand the activity. At this stage let students use their imagination and humour (for example, American literature student, or ant scientist). Alternatively, students could find information from dictionaries or the Internet, if you have a computer room. Put some ideas on the board and feedback.

Suggested answers:Astronaut Headmaster Office assistant ViolinistBanker Interpreter Postman WaiterCarpenter Judge Quality control

officer / Quilter / Quantum physicist

X-ray technician

Doctor Kindergarten teacher

Real estate agent Youth worker

Engineer Librarian Salesperson ZoologistFarmer Mechanic TeacherGame designer Nurse Usher

Students then test each other’s pronunciation and spelling (How do you pronounce this? How do you spell…?)

To exploit this, you could play some word games (hangman, anagrams, writing the phonemic transcriptions of jobs, dictionary races, etc).

T2

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to ask them to brainstorm jobs for just A – I. Provide them with hints where necessary, e.g. ‘B’ is a person who works in a place where money is saved or borrowed.

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

Learning Activity 2 (20 minutes)

Students are asked to match jobs to their descriptions. In groups, they discuss what each of the jobs in the left-hand column is about. You might like to go round the groups and offer help, where necessary.

Answers: b. Tellers help customers with their banking activities.d. Interpreters and translators analyse and convert spoken or written words from one

language into another.a. Advertising salespeople sell airtime on radio and TV stations and page space in

newspapers and magazines.e. Customer service representatives try to solve client complaints.h. Secretaries perform a variety of clerical and administrative tasks needed to run an office. Learning Activity 3 (20 minutes)

Conduct this activity as a class quiz. Students write descriptions using three of the jobs they wrote down to test the class. The group that guesses the job receives a point.

Learning Activity 4 (30 minutes)

Students play the pelmanism game using the cards on the next few pages. Ask students to match the jobs with their descriptions. Make sure you make single-sided photocopies and cut up the cards before class. To feed back, you could use a photocopiable OHT to go through some of the matches yourself. This section is full of useful verb + noun collocations (word partnerships) which you might like to draw students’ attention to, e.g. operate machinery and look after patients.

T3

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to give them some prompts for writing job descriptions. They can be given sentence starters such as:- For this job, you need to…- This job requires…

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to:- use flashcards or web images for the matching game- select a fewer number of jobs for the game

For more advanced students, teachers can set up a guessing game (possibly as a mill drill) activity. The students write a job title on a sticky label and then stick it to one of their peer’s back. They mill (walk around) and try to guess which job title is written on their backs by listening to the descriptions of their classmates, e.g. ‘This person looks after sick people. S/he knows a lot about medicine. It’s important to have regular checkups with this person.’ When all students have guessed, they sit down. During the mill drill, you could walk around yourself collecting any good descriptions or making a note of several errors that you think should be highlighted at the end. Write these up on the board and go over them.

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T4

Chef

Merchandise

Displayer

Engineer

Designs, develops, analyses and maintains

a wide range of equipment.

Cooks food in a restaurant.

Plans and constructs displays in windows.

Computer

Programmer Purchasi

ng Agent

Retail Salesper

son

Writes instructions that enable computers to

perform specific tasks.

Tries to get the best products at the lowest

possible prices.

Helps customers to look for items in stores and convinces them to buy

them.

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

T5

Analyses and checks the accuracy of financial

information.

Develops, maintains, and sometimes, has

programming projects for Internet sites.

Supervises, cares for and instructs

youngsters on care programmes.

Plans and designs buildings and structures.

Helps students who are between 12 and 18 years old to learn.

Researches, explains and applies legal matters to

specific problems.Lawyer

Secondary School Teacher

Architect

Child-care

Worker

Webmaster

Accountant

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

T6

Welcomes shoppers and takes their money for

goods.

Takes orders at a restaurant and serves.

Tells people how to improve their look.

Actor

Postman

Taxi

Driver

Reads and performs film or theatre roles.

Delivers mail to people in a certain area.

Picks people up and drops them off at their

destination.

Beautician

Waiter

Supermarket

Cashier

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

T7

Looks after people in hospital.

Works in a shop by using the cash

register or helping people to decide what

to buy.

Gives people massages to help them to relax.

Constructs buildings from plans.

Mends vehicles that have broken down.

Protects people from crime.Policema

n

Mechanic

Builder

Masseur

Shop Assista

nt

Nurse

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

Learning Activity 5 (40 minutes)

Make one-sided copies of the blank cards on page S4 of the student’s handouts so that students can cut up the cards. Students make their own Pelmanism game with about five other jobs by writing down the names of jobs and their descriptions on the blank cards. Ask students to cut up the cards after writing and exchange their set of cards with another group. They then try to play the game designed by the other group. Collect the cards at the end of the lesson if you would like to do revision with them at a later stage.

Learning Activity 6 (10 minutes)

Students read about Jane’s and John’s hopes for the future. When they have guessed the job Jane and John would like to have, students put their hands up. They then quickly move on to discuss the job they wish to apply for when they graduate.

Suggested answers: Jane – merchandiser, John – taxi driver

Section C: Seeking career advice

Warmer (10 minutes)

Teachers could perhaps talk about their experiences in job seeking first. Then explain to students that the learning activities that follow will provide them with opportunities to think about different jobs and which ones they are more suitable for.

Learning Activity 1

Part A (20 minutes)

Students work together to quickly write a job next to the activities. Note that this is only an activity to encourage students to talk about different jobs and there is no accurate answer. Any reasonable answers should be accepted. The following are examples:

1. travel abroad – tour guide

2. work nights – nurse / copy editor

3. work outside – gardener

4. help others in need due to illness – doctor

5. educate or train others – teacher

6. protect people – policeman / policewoman

7. work with children – kindergarten teacher

T8

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to: - give them more time to develop their own game using pictures / drawings- play some games with job titles, e.g. hangman, instead of asking them to develop

their own pelmanism game

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

8. drive a vehicle – bus / taxi driver

9. operate a computer – data analyst

10. design and create buildings – architect / interior designer

11. buy products – buyer / merchandiser

12. work from home – freelance writer

13. persuade others to buy things – salesperson

14. repair things – mechanic / handyman

15. clean things – cleaner

Part B (10 minutes)

Students then think of three more activities.

Possible answers: swim / life guardsew / tailoract / film star

Learning Activity 2

Part A (20 minutes)

Students work in groups of four with members A, B, C and D to write down eight more questions.

T9

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to ask students to set only five questions, including three yes / no questions and two open-ended questions.

For more advanced students, you might like to ask them to write their own questions first before they see the structures given.

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to read out some job titles and ask students to write them next to the traits. Alternatively, you might like to provide a list of job titles and ask students to match them with the descriptions, or simply ask students to choose five or six jobs from the list to work on.

For more advanced students, you might like to ask students to think of other traits for each job.

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

Part B (30 minutes)

When Part A is done, the following procedure takes place:Student A and Student B form into pairs and take turns to interview each other.Student C and Student D form into pairs and do the same.Ask students to take down their partner’s answers on a sheet of paper.

Part C (10 minutes)

When students have conducted the interviews, Students A and C work together to agree on jobs that might be suitable for Students B and D. Students B and D do the same for Students A and C. They then complete the note sheet on page S8. They should use their discretion when filling out the sheet, leaving out those parts they may have not gathered information for, e.g. things they do not like or are not good at.

Useful tipBefore putting students back with their original partners, tell them that they have to perform a role-play to organise a time and place for their meeting.

Section D: Telephoning

Learning Activity

Part A (10 minutes)

To prepare students for making an appointment by telephone, students match functions with expressions. Do not give out the notes on the functions and language of telephoning on page S10 before this task.

Answers: 1. D 2. C 3. E 4. A 5. B 6. I 7. H 8. F 9. G 10. K 11. J

After the activity, give out the notes on ‘Telephoning – functions and language’ on page S10 and go over them with students.

Part B (10 minutes)

Arranging an appointment by telephone

Follow the same grouping as in Section C Learning Activity 2. Students A and B work together and C and D together. Students have to find at least 45 minutes free on both of their timetables – stress that they cannot meet before 8 am or after 7 pm. You should make sure that students sit opposite each other and do not look at their partner’s schedule. If they do, the activity will not work.

T10

Catering for Learner Diversity

The less advanced students can do this activity together in pairs or groups. Before doing the activity, you might like to go over difficult words like ‘negotiating’, ‘reassuring’ and ‘identifying’ with students.

The more advanced students can fold the sheet in half along its vertical middle or cover one of the columns. One student says her / his half, the other gives the answer.

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Note: You will need to make single-sided copies of the schedules on page S12 of the student’s handouts and have them cut up for use before class.

Possible time slots:1. Wednesday 4 pm – 4.45 pm2. Thursday 3 pm – 3.45 pm3. Thursday 6 pm – 7 pm

You may wish to point out the collocations: have lunch, have a meeting, have a lesson and have a break.

Part C (10 minutes)

When students get back together with their original partner, they tell each other the results of their discussion: the job they think is suitable for their partner.

Section E: Business memo writing

Learning Activity (30 minutes)

Play the recording (CD Tracks 1-3) of the phone calls from Ruth Marsh. When you play it for the first time, ask students to take notes in the boxes provided.

Tapescript1. “Hi Darren. It’s 2 pm, Friday the 18th of April. Could you please inform Anne Oxford that

she has been invited to visit Top Toy Factory in Dongguan next week (maybe on the 23rd

of April) while she is in the area? They’ve made quite a lot of changes since our last visit. Please ask her to let me know if she’s available. Thanks.”

2. “Hello Darren. This is Ruth speaking. It’s 10.30 am, Thursday the 4th of August. I’m sorry to say that I won’t be able to meet the Sales Team today as an urgent meeting has been requested in one of our factories. Could you please ask Melani, the team head, to get back to me with another suitable date for next week?”

3. “Hi Darren. This is Ruth in the car park. It is 4 pm, Monday the 17th of May. Lately, I find that the warehouse entrance is often blocked by our staff’s cars and the lorries can’t deliver the loads. Could you please remind all staff that they need to park their cars in the spaces assigned to them? From tomorrow onwards, any cars blocking the entrance will be removed without further notice!”

T11

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to put Student As / Cs and Student Bs / Ds together first to write out some questions. You might like to provide an opening and a question to help students to start off the telephone conversation, e.g. “Hi, John. I’ve come up with a suggestion on what you may consider doing in the future. Shall we fix a day to meet up some time next week?”

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Go over the notes on memo writing on page S14 with students before they listen to the recording for the second time. Give students some time to write up the memos after they listen. When students have finished, you may ask some of them to write their memos on the blackboard and go over them with the class.

Answers for notes on memo writing:- The first memo is the least formal.- Memo 2 uses a serious tone requesting action.- ASAP stands for ‘as soon as possible’.

Suggested answers:

1. To: Anne OxfordFrom: Ruth MarshTime and date: 2 pm, Friday, 18 AprilSubject: Factory visitMessage: Please let David know whether you would be available for a visit to Top Toy

Factory in Dongguan next week (maybe on 23 April).

2. To: MelaniFrom: Ruth MarshTime and date: 10.30 am, Thursday, 4 AugSubject: Meeting with Sales TeamMessage: David cannot meet the Sales Team today because of an urgent meeting.

Please call back to fix another date for next week.

3. To: All staffFrom: Ruth MarshTime and date: 4 pm, Monday, 17 MaySubject: ParkingMessage: Cars should be parked in assigned spaces. Those blocking the entrance will be

removed without further notice from 18 May onwards.

T12

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to give parts of the above answers to students to give them some hints.

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Describing C ompanies Section F: Group discussion

Learning Activity 1 (10 minutes)

Group discussion: Do you know anyone who works for a well-known company? Would you like to work for that company or one of these? Why?

Learning Activity 2 (10 minutes)

Using as many of the company names as possible, students are asked to say what they did

last week. (They could also say: what they’d like to do; are going to do; might do…)

Learning Activity 3 (10 minutes)

Students brainstorm words / phrases associated with KFC (think of taste, touch, look, sound and smell). Here are some examples:Taste Sound Touch Look Smelljuicy nibble soft impatient sniffsweet munch greasy satisfied aromahot sip cold / hot crowded smell of chocoyummy lick dirty tempting savoury

Conduct a quick survey: Who likes KFC? Who prefers…?

Learning Activity 4

Part A (20 minutes)

Put students in groups of A and B. Give out different versions of the text on KFC on pages S18–S19 to students of groups A and B. They work together to write down the appropriate questions to ask to complete the text.

T13

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to provide the following for them to fill out and ask them to make a couple of sentences on their own.1. Yesterday … a coffee.2. Then I ___________(phone) UA Cinema to __________(book) tickets for a 9.30 pm show.3. Since The Commercial Press was on sale, I ___________(visit) the store at Causeway Bay

to shop for a present for my brother.4. _______________________________________________________5. _______________________________________________________

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to provide a list of words, e.g. two from each category, and ask them to put the words in the right boxes. Encourage them to think of other possible words / phrases.

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The text contains the following fields of information about the company:Advertising and logoHistoryProductsLocationWhen this is done, you may wish to practise some of the questions.

Answers:KFC

KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of (1) fast food (What?) restaurants from the United States of America. It was founded by a soldier named (2) Colonel Sanders (Who?).

Advertising and LogoThe company adopted the shorter form of its name, i.e. KFC, in (3) 1991 (When?). There are (4) three (How many?) most widely believed causes for doing so: the name would turn people’s attention away from ‘chicken’, as the chain was

moving to offer other foods; the unhealthy connotations of ‘fried’ would be avoided; a shorter name would be more attractive to (5) young people (Who?).

Recently, the company has begun to re-use the Kentucky Fried Chicken name. The Kentucky Fried Chicken name can be seen on some (6) buckets of chicken (What?). As of (7) 2007 (When?), the company’s website uses Kentucky Fried Chicken for the (8) logo (What?) in the United States.

HistoryThe first ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ outlet was opened in (9) 1952 (When?). Sanders sold the business in 1964 for (10) US $2 million (How much?), and it has since been sold three more times, most recently to PepsiCo.

ProductsKFC’s Original Recipe was (11) fried chicken and French fries (What?). What makes it so special is that it is prepared from 11 herbs and spices. Other than fried chicken, many KFC restaurants serve crispy chicken and (12) side dishes (What?) like coleslaw, wedges, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn on the cob. KFC also offers other dishes such as hamburgers, pork ribs, Honey BBQ wings and desserts – though not all may be found in all locations. Some menu items are innovations in regional stores. The management in (13) Singapore (Where?), for example, introduced the Colonel Burger in 1977 and the (14) Hot & Crispy Chicken (What?) in (15) 1990 (When?).

Countries with KFCKFC restaurants can be found in most countries in the world. It is one of the most popular Western fast-food chains in (16) mainland China (Where?). KFC is also very popular in Japan, particularly during (17) Christmas (When?), where people in large cities often have to reserve buckets of chicken beforehand. One of the most famous KFC restaurants in the U.S. is located in Georgia. This store is notable for a 56-foot tall sign that looks like a (18) chicken (What?).

Part B (20 minutes)

Students go into pairs (A and B) or groups of 4 (Ax2 and Bx2) to ask and answer their questions.

To finish, you could go over the answers with an OHT with the class.

T14

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Learning English through Workplace Communication

Learning Activity 5

Part A (20 minutes)

The students are then asked to complete six sentences. This is useful language used to talk about the four areas of information about a company: advertising and logo, history, products and location.

Answers:1. The first KFC outlet was opened in 1952.2. It was founded by a soldier named Colonel Sanders.3. It is the most popular western fast-food chain in mainland China.4. The company adopted the shorter form of its name in 1991.5. The management introduced the Colonel Burger in 1977.6. KFC restaurants can be found in most countries in the world.

Part B (10 minutes)

Answers: a. 2 b. 4 c. 5 d. 1 e. 3 f. 6

Ask students to find other useful phrases in the text to describe the four areas about the company.

Students can then brainstorm their own by substituting their phrases: Examples: The first KFC outlet was started in 1952.The company started using the abbreviated form of its name in 1991.

T15

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you can change the text yourself to make less and / or easier gap fills. You could give the entire questions without the question word, e.g. ____________ was KFC founded?

For more advanced students, there is a supplementary information gap fill activity using a text about ‘Pret a Manger’ on pages T48-T49 if you would like to use it. You could also ask students to create their own gap fill text for another group using Wikipedia.

Answers for ‘Pret a Manger’:1. UK2. London3. 19864. Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe5. property law6. University of Westminster7. natural ingredients8. on the day of purchase9. in a kitchen at each location10. homeless11. charities12. 200113. 33%14. New York15. seven 16. London

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You could put students in groups to do this and to brainstorm as many phrases as they can think of that might replace the ones in the text. The team with the most phrases wins. Remind students that the phrases could be useful for their presentations in the next activity.

Part C (10 minutes)

Students discuss their favourite fast food restaurant.

Section G: Presentations

Learning Activity 1 (10 minutes)

Answers: a. Fb. Fc. Fd. Te. Ff. Tg. Th. Fi. Fj. Fk. Tl. T

Learning Activity 2 (40 minutes)

Part A

Ask students to read through the fact file to have an idea of what they should look for when they listen to the presentation (CD Track 4). They then take notes as they listen. Do not check answers with students until they have completed Part B of this activity. You may pre-teach vocabulary such as eco-car, product range and organic energy.

Answers: 2. 20043. Two4. Cars5. Five6. the world’s environment7. Think Green, Think Eco-Car8. Green9. international export market

T16

Catering for Learner Diversity

For more advanced students, you might like to ask them to brainstorm five dos and five don’ts when giving a presentation instead of attempting Learning Activity 1.

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to provide choices for some of the blanks.

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Part B

The aim of this activity is to have students pay attention to the language and expressions that can be used at a presentation for different purposes, such as giving the overview, switching topic, summarising and rounding off. Students complete the gaps as they listen to the recording again. Ask students to check their answers for Part A when they have completed the gaps. Remind them that they can use the expressions as they make their presentation in the next activity.

Answers:

T17

Company presentation transcriptI’d like to start by welcoming you all here today. My name is Mandy Wong and I’m one of the managers for Eco-car Ltd. The presentation today is about our company, its history, location, products and advertising.

So, let me begin by giving you an outline of my talk today. First of all, I’ll give you a brief account of the history of Eco-car Ltd. Then I’ll run through our current product range. After that I’ll give you a brief description of our new advertising campaign. Please feel free to ask any questions at the end of the presentation.

Right, let’s start by looking at the history of our company. The company was founded in 2004 by two brothers who had the idea of producing a car which runs off 100% organic energy. They started with just one small room to build it in! Now we have two large factories in the Northern Territories.

So, let’s move on to the current product range. At the moment we have five different Eco-car products. These range from our original car – the Friendly Juicer – to the highly successful Wonder Car which has won several international prizes. We believe that these products will continue to be particularly popular because they go against the modern trend around the world of luxury items that run at a great cost to the world’s environment.

Good. I hope you now have a clear idea of the kind of products we have introduced since we started out in 2004. Now I’m going to turn to our new advertising campaign and how I believe it is going to perform in the face of some very strong competition in this sector.

Think Green, Think Eco-Car. That’s our new slogan and our idea is to offer a range of cars on the market that are three different types of green – only green – a light, a pale and a dark green. I hope you like this idea.

Ok then to sum up. Eco-car is now a well established player in the car manufacturing market of Hong Kong, focussing on organic fuels. We face strong competition in the market but we feel we are in a strong position with our highly specialised products. Our plan to move into the international export market should ensure that the company continues to grow in the coming years.

That brings me to the end of my presentation today. Now, if there are any questions…

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to reduce the number of gaps or provide expressions and ask students to put them in the correct space.

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Section H: Presentation of a famous company

Learning Activity (40 minutes)

Students form into groups and choose a famous company to do a short presentation about it. Students should think about the four fields: advertising and logos, history, products, location (other topics are services, prospects, job types) when researching their companies. Students can choose from the companies on page S15 or any other companies that they are interested in knowing more about.

Useful tips1. Before students do their presentation, go over the handout ‘Presentations – functions

and language’ on page S26 with them.2. If you would like to evaluate students’ presentations, you may refer to page T51

‘Presentation Feedback Form’.3. Students could also complete the ‘Self-reflection Sheet’ on page T52 after this task.

One way to ensure active listening during the presentations is to ask students to write some important questions about their presentations first (or create their own gap fill sentences / true or false statements) and to distribute these to their peers. Their peers should listen and answer the questions at the end of the presentations.

Section I: Self-access learning task (40 minutes)

Students are asked to prepare a two-minute presentation in English to a potential employer about the kind of work they would like to do or the type of company they would like to work for when they finish school or university. They should record this at home and keep it as part of their portfolio.

T18

Catering for Learner Diversity

For more advanced students, you might like to do the following activity on job description with them.

Form students into groups of three or four. Give each group a set of cards, or ask students to design their own. Each set should contain one stack of ‘Jobs’ cards and one stack of ‘Descriptions’ cards. One person from each group shuffles the cards and deals them so that each person gets an equal number of cards. Students see if their hand contains any jobs that match the descriptions. If so, they can put them in the middle of the table. Other students check to see that the pair is correct.

Work clockwise / anti-clockwise. Student 1 takes a card from Student 2. If it forms a pair with her / his hand, the pair goes down on the pile in the middle of the table. Other students check to see that the pair is correct. Then, Student 2 takes a card from Student 3, and so on. The winner of the game is the person who has placed all of her / his cards in the middle of the table.

Notes:Each group of students needs 24 cards. The more groups of students you have, the more sets of cards you will have to make. Therefore, it might be useful to have these cards laminated so that they can be recycled by other teachers / classes.

Catering for Learner Diversity

For less advanced students, you might like to ask them to do a presentation on only two aspects, e.g. logos and products.

Page 19: Describing jobs, businesses and their responsibilities€¦  · Web viewDescribing Jobs and Companies Unit 1 Describing Jobs and Companies. Teacher’s Notes. Describing Jobs. Section

Learning English through Workplace Communication

T19

Supplementary activity ideas for companies

1. Teachers and students create reading and listening activities based on company profiles taken from the company’s own website or from Wikipedia. These could be gap fills like the pair-work for KFC or gaps for which students must decide which word(s) fit in the space provided. This could also be jumbled texts, at the level of paragraphs or sentences. This could be comprehension questions in the form of multiple choices, true / false options and so on. Students could also be asked to do summarising or error correction activities.

2. Students present, or write an article on, the history of a famous business person or company to peers.

3. Students design a quiz or web-quest using a company’s website for peers.

4. Students write a report on a company’s website or brand image stating why they think it has been successful and so on.

5. Students create crosswords, word searches or other vocabulary games for their peers based on a particular job description or workplace (see http://puzzlemaker.com/).

6. Students visit a workplace to meet and interview staff and / or clients in the workplace. This could be recorded or videoed and presented to peers.

7. Students conduct surveys and interviews with people in Hong Kong to find out why they like / do not like the company or its product(s). They present or write a report about their findings.

Role - plays

1. Students brainstorm the types of spoken and written interaction that take place in one of these companies (between staff and clients or between staff) and act out role-plays or write appropriate documentation.

2. Students set up their own businesses based on one of the famous ones shown on page S15. They can go on to create a company structure, image and so on. From this stage all of the workplace communication skills can be studied and practised.